Reports

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has appropriated over $3.5 trillion to address the public health and economic crises. Given the changing nature of the pandemic and the federal government’s response, we re-visited our original top management challenges to ensure that the PRAC is providing timely information to Congress and the new Administration about the response efforts. The following four challenges have been added: Preventing and Detecting Fraud against Government Programs; Informing and Protecting the Public from Pandemic-Related Fraud; Data...

We conducted this audit to support transparent and accountable government operations during this unprecedented time. We focused our work on determining steps the county took to ensure that vital services could continue safely and equitably during the pandemic; whether those steps were in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities to reduce health risks; and what improvements can be made moving forward.

This audit attempts to answer the following question. What types of unemployment claims fraud schemes is the Kansas Department of Labor aware of and how are they being addressed?

With respect to the Education Stabilization Fund, the objectives of this audit were to (1) obtain an understanding of internal controls over compliance, assess control risk of noncompliance, and perform tests of those controls unless controls were deemed to be ineffective and (2) express an opinion on whether the State complied with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of federal awards that may have a direct and material effect on the Education Stabilization Fund. The State of Texas complied in all material respects with the federal requirements for the Education...

This report provides the results of our evaluation of the use of telework among the state’s executive branch agencies during the COVID-19 public health emergency. The purpose of this audit was to provide information on the challenges the agencies experienced. We found most agencies did not have telework policies in place prior to the pandemic.

Section 204, Public Act 67 of 2020, effective March 30, 2020, requires the Office of the Auditor General to audit the use of funds appropriate for coronavirus public health emergency – health care capacity coronavirus public health emergency, and coronavirus response fund and report to the chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees at a minimum of every month on the appropriateness of the preceding month’s expenditures until the funds are expended. In order to provide a more complete picture of the total spending on COVID-19, our audit scope includes all COVID-19 coded...

The economic shutdowns in early 2020 led to historically high numbers of UI claims in a very short time (claim surge), and further shutdowns began in December 2020, raising the potential for additional spikes in unemployment. This audit reviewed EDD’s response to the claim surge, its handling of the resulting backlog of unpaid claims, and the assistance it has provided to individuals through its call center

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision makers across the world created policies to curb the spread of the disease. These policies influenced many aspects of society in an effort to reduce COVID-19 caseload and deaths and limit economic impacts. There is now a growing set of data capturing policies, the effects on the policy environment, and the ongoing impacts of the pandemic itself on different regions and populations, as measured by these different impacts. Together, these data provide a basis to better understand how and whether policies achieved their intended outcomes and...

This report concludes that the five courts we reviewed for this audit—the superior courts in Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Orange, and San Bernardino counties—adhered to most of the required and recommended procurement and contracting practices that we evaluated, but they could improve in certain areas.